Not born here, but giving back to the country that gave...

1of 8Sam Mammen, who recently donated $2 million to the newly renamed Mammen Family Public Library in Bulverde, vies for the attention of Joni David, who was visiting the library with her mother.Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

4of 8Born in the Indian state of Kerala, Sam Mammen said education was so paramount to his parents, they scrimped and saved so he and his two siblings — and several other kids from their village as well — could attend private schools.Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

5of 8After selling his educational consulting company, Sam Mammen launched the Mammen Family Foundation to support organizations that meet three criteria: They must promote literacy, take a local and global perspective and work to enhance the whole person, physically, emotionally and mentally.Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

6of 8The $2 million Sam Mammen donated to the Bulverde library is earmarked exclusively for programs designed for children and adults.Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News

7of 8Models wear clothing designed by Roshnic Latif during her 2018 fashion show held in the Rosenberg Sky Room at the University of the Incarnate Word.Photo: Courtesy Roshnic Latif

8of 8A model wears on Roshnic Latif's hand-painted line of silk clothing during her 2018 fashion show in the Rosenberg Sky Room at the University of the Incarnate Word.Photo: Courtesy Roshnic Latif

Born in India, Sam Mammen was so grateful for his success after immigrating to the United States that he wanted to do something to give back. So after selling his successful business, he and his family formed the Mammen Family Foundation.

Knowing from personal experience the importance of education, one of his first grants was for $2 million to the newly renamed Mammen Family Public Library in Bulverde.

“We designated that the money be used for programming for both children and adults,” he said. “It’s an incredible feeling to know the funds will be far reaching and that its impact will last for years.”

At a time when the White House is attempting to ban migrants from Muslim-majority countries, foreign-born members of the military are being discharged and so-called Dreamers, those brought here as children, are at risk of being deported, the role of immigration in this country has become extremely controversial.

While many immigrants want only to work hard and raise a family, others have gone beyond that, giving back to the larger society that, they readily admit, has given them so much. Here are short profiles of three people, born elsewhere, who have contributed to making San Antonio and South Texas a better place.

Sam Mammen

Growing up in the Indian state of Kerala, Sam Mammen said education was paramount to his parents, so they scrimped and saved so he and his two siblings — and several other kids from their village, as well — could attend private schools.

“He paid to educate at least two engineers, a nurse and a boy who went to Bible school,” said Mammen, 69 and a U.S. citizen since the late ’70s. “So I always had a role model for giving back.”

Mammen recently showed that he’s taken that lesson to heart when his family foundation, established after he sold his educational consulting business, donated $2 million to the Bulverde Public Library, which has been renamed in the family’s honor.

After coming to the U.S. in 1972, Mammen attended DePaul University in Chicago before volunteering for a teaching program in Texas that paid the princely sum of $75 per month, plus living quarters. During this time he also met his future wife Lori, who grew up in Ohio.

After teaching for several years, Mammen started Educational Consulting Service, a firm that trained teachers to teach gifted and talented students.

“When I was teaching, I was reaching maybe 120 students a year,” he said. “I wanted to do something that would affect a much larger number of kids.”

Over the years, ECS expanded into book publishing, bought two other educational companies and eventually employed about 25 people.

After selling the company in late 2017 (he preferred not to disclose the price), he launched the Mammen Family Foundation to support organizations that meet three criteria: They must promote literacy, take a local and global perspective and work to enhance the whole person, physically, emotionally and mentally.

The library gift, he said, neatly fulfills all three missions, since the foundation stipulated that the funds be used exclusively for programs designed for children and adults, rather than for capital expenditures.

While Mammen said he experienced few instances of overt prejudice, he adds that he may have been unaware if it did happen.

“I’m sure there were doors that were not open to me because of my race or place of origin,” he said, adding that his three children “met with vicious comments on their mixed-race background, especially during the two Gulf wars.”

His is a positive immigrant story, and one he hopes others will have the opportunity to duplicate.

Murad Alrashdi

The last thing refugees fleeing persecution, poverty or oppression think about is their dental health.

That’s where Murad Alrashdi comes in. A dental student from Saudi Arabia, Alrashdi volunteers at both the Raindrop Turkish House and the Center for Refugee Services, helping refugees and new immigrants to get needed dental care while also teaching them the rudiments of oral hygiene.

He’s helped refugees from all over, including Iraq, Syria, Africa, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“Refugees are at high risk of caries,” he said, using the medical term for decay of the teeth and jawbone. “They usually lack access to dental care because they have other things to worry about — like finding a place to live and work, or just making sure their children have enough to eat.”

Alrashdi was born into a large family in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina. He got his dental degree at Qassim University, did his residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and is now studying pediatric dentistry at the UT Health School of Dentistry.

Despite his rigorous academic schedule, he volunteers on his own time. He cannot provide dental care himself, but he knows how to navigate within the system, finding coverage to help pay for treatments and dentists willing to work for free or at a reduced rate.

He said he sees plenty of people with cavities, gum disease, missing teeth or worse.

“You can learn a lot by examining someone’s mouth,” he said. “We’ve sent people to see a physician when we’ve found signs of cancer, leukemia and other diseases.”

He supplies parents with toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss and will teach them how to use it so they can take care of themselves and their children.

This isn’t the first time Murad has done this kind of volunteer work. He volunteered back in Saudi Arabia and has traveled to impoverished countries on five separate occasions, most recently to the Dominican Republic.

Why does he take time from his studies to do this kind of volunteer work?

“This is where I find my happiness,” he said. “When I can help needy people, I feel a sense of accomplishment. We’re all humans and humans should help other humans.”

Roshnic Latif

Born and raised in Sialkot, Pakistan, Roshnic Latif always loved art and fashion, sketching and painting. So after she moved to the United States with her new husband Wasif in 1999, she started hosting small trunk shows of her designs from her New Jersey home.

The couple, now with two boys, moved to San Antonio in 2005 when Wasif took a job with USAA. She called the move a drastic change.

“There were not many Pakistani or Indian families here back then,” said Latif, 44. “Frankly, I was bored.”

She started sketching and designing again, and one evening, while sitting around the dinner table with her husband and sons Huzair, now 17, and Hashim, 15, she decided to hold a fashion show, with proceeds going to charity.

“I also wanted to do it to honor my parents, who I lost about 20 years ago,” she said.

Her first fashion show, held in her San Antonio backyard, was a surprise success. She’d invited about 70 people and 100 showed up. That show raised money for a cancer hospital back in Pakistan.

So every February or March since then, she’s held a fashion show at places like the Jewish Community Center and the Sky Room at the University of the Incarnate Word, raising money for groups such as Susan G. Komen, the Center for Refugee Services and ARC of San Antonio.

Latif designs about 75 pieces for each show and they fall into three lines: Western wear, hand-painted silks and formal ethnic wear. She said it takes her four to six months to complete each line, and she works with a manufacturer in Pakistan and travels there at least once a year to oversee the production.

“I take a lot of my inspiration from our travels,” she said. “When we went to Japan, the designs had an Asian look.”

This year’s show benefited Women’s Global Connection, which promotes learning and leadership in women, raising more than $11,000 after expenses. About 300 people attended, paying $50 per ticket in advance, $60 at the door. Overall, the five shows she’s put on thus far have raised a total of about $60,000.

Latif said she’s happy that something she’s so passionate about — fashion — can be used to help so many people.

“Then (Center for Refugee Services executive director) Margaret (Costantino) told me it’s not a matter of how much you give, what matters is that you care about your community and are giving something back in some form.”

Richard Marini is a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. He has been with the paper since 2000. Prior to that he was a full-time freelance writer, contributing to publications as varied as Us, Cooking Light, Frequent Flyer, Bottom Line/Health and many others. Reader's Digest once sent him to Alaska for a week.